The Oriental Salad War: Why the youth are abandoning the left

Beware of talking in facts on Facebook, it could get you banned.

A close friend of mine was excommunicated from a vegan Facebook group for defending oriental salad. The left wing progressive group, in all its intersectional wisdom, had decided that a Sydney vegan restaurant was racist. The eatery had callously labelled one item on its menu as ‘oriental’. An imperialist act of cultural appropriation – so accused.

My friend, in the group, questioned whether ‘oriental’ was a racist slur. She suggested that the fledgling restaurant was just using a descriptive English word.

She quickly learnt her lesson. After much explanation, as to how she and the restaurant were oppressing minorities with their hate speech, she was banned from the group.

My vegan friend, raised in a working class left-wing household, had been de-platformed for merely questioning their social justice doctrine.

Needless to say, her appreciation for the protection of freedom of speech has greatly increased. As has her dismay at the progressive side of politics.

Teenagers are the most conservative cohort since the pre-World War II generation, according to a 2016 British survey as reported in the Telegraph online. The survey of 2000 people as reported in the , by ‘The Gild’, found 14- and 15-year-olds are significantly more socially conservative than the generations above them.

The survey asked people of varying ages to describe their views on social issues ranging from illegal drug use to tattoos. More than 80 per cent of both Generation Y (born 1980-2000) and Generation X (born 1965-1979) described their views as either “quite liberal” or “very liberal”. Yet the majority of teenagers, 59 per cent, described their views as “conservative”.

The youth will continue to abandon the the progressive side of politics if the left labels all dissenting voices as sexist, racist and bigoted.